a delayed update

Ok, so I'm a little behind on my posting....this post actually deals with events from Wednesday. I'll try to mention any updates to one of the events in particular from the past couple of days.

First of all, we had an awesome day in the dump. Marc, Terri, and I picked up the two large vats of frijoles (beans) and arroz (rice) along with a TON of tortillas from a lady who lives next to the children's home. We then picked up a bunch of bags of water to hand out (If you don't know, clean water can be bought in small bags as well as bottles, etc.). The three of us drove out to the dump, and I wish I could've taken some pictures, but we were constantly giving out food! My english-speaking friend Bryan, who lives in the dump, Fannie, and another little girl whose names escapes me helped us feed everyone. They didn't even ask for food first...they were just willing to sit in the truck bed with us helping us feed everyone. It was a really awesome thing to see.

We hung out with everyone for a bit after we fed them, then left, but it was really a great day to visit the dump. Talking, hanging out, and just trying to be Jesus to these people continually equalizes where I am and where they are...because it's not really about where we live, no matter how drastically different. It's about who we are and in what image we're made in.



The next major event that happened is that we went with one of the congressmen and two or three councilmen to this area (I can't remember the name) where the mountain is literally falling into houses and is a major safety issue, among others, for the families there. The city government and TORCH have made an agreement that the city will help find families who live in these houses and relocate them to another area that is safer. These families will move (some have moved already) to TORCH houses built in a community called Nueva Oriental. The agreement is that TORCH will build 20 houses for families that the city will relocate.

I've often struggled with how government and the mission of God could be mixed...because so many times things basically just get screwed up. I think what the city and TORCH is doing together is a really awesome thing that will give houses to families who need them in the name of Jesus. I have some photos below of the old house locations.It might be hard to see, but there's a house where part of it is basically hanging over the edge of a cliff...if I remember right, 11 people live in it, and it's only a matter of time before it collapes.

Here's the old house of one of the first people to move to Nueva Oriental. I think at least 6 live here.

Where a rock from the mountain collapsed and fell through part of the house. Not a good situation at all.

A TINY, tiny, kitten in the house. I wish I had my hand next to it, because it could literally fit right in the palm of my hand alone!

So, 20 houses are to be built for relocating families who live in terrible houses on a mountain that's falling down. Four of the houses have been built already as of today. I'll post pictures sometime soon of when the mayor and councilmen visited both the mountain that's falling and Nueva Oriental. Getting 16 more houses will be noo problem!

But real quick, here's a picture I took overlooking some of the Honduran mountains. I tried the panorama feature on my camera free hand...it consists of 3 photos, I believe. More blurry than I would've liked, but it works!